Terminology in the accountability field is ambiguous, encompassing both top-down, technocratic control initiatives and bottom‑up efforts to challenge the abuse of power and promote equity. The main proposition is that communicating accountability strategies should rely on conceptual and cross-cultural translation rather than awkward attempts at direct linguistic translation. To illustrate how accountability keywords are both politically constructed and contested, this article briefly reflects on the origins,
circulation, and transformation of six relevant terms: transparency, the right to know, whistle-blower, advocacy, openwashing, and social accountability – including reflections from accountability advocates from Pakistan, Guatemala, and the Philippines. The conclusion calls for a two-track approach to communicate public accountability strategies, which involves (1) searching within popular cultures to find existing terms or phrases that can be repurposed, and (2) inventing new discourses that communicate
ideas about public accountability that resonate with culturally grounded common-sense understandings.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

en

dc.rights.uri

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

en

dc.subject

Health

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dc.title

The Political Construction of Accountability Keywords

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dc.type

Article

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dc.rights.holder

Institute of Development Studies

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dc.identifier.team

Health and Nutrition

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dc.identifier.doi

10.19088/1968-2018.136

dcterms.dateAccepted

2018-05-01

rioxxterms.funder

Default funder

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rioxxterms.identifier.project

Default project

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rioxxterms.version

VoR

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rioxxterms.funder.project

d218e59e-c0fb-4cb3-8a07-92a57da72cd1

en

﻿

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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode